NITI Aayog task force to decide how to use Census data for social schemes

The task force is expected to submit its report to the Prime Minister soon

A NITI Aayog task force on elimination of poverty will decide on how to use the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 for rural India for better targeting of social schemes.

Officials said a dominant view within the task force is that poverty estimates should be used for analytical purposes, while sector-specific indicators could be used for social welfare schemes, which the SECC provides.

The task force, which has been constituted by the central government under the chairmanship of vice-chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, is expected to submit its report to the Prime Minister soon. In its earlier avatar, the then Planning Commission computed the poverty ratio based on the Consumption Expenditure Survey and other parameters, but many a times, it landed in trouble over allegations of low cut-offs for poverty.

However, the fresh set of data leave little scope for that as it is not based on consumption, but instead is a full-fledged census based on certain deprivation. Some experts said the Aayog's task force can suggest that households with a certain number of deprivations should be considered poor for some schemes.

Earlier, too, the Hashim Committee had computed its urban poverty numbers based on a similar census, but that was for the urban households.